Amazon RDS vs Google Cloud SQL comparison

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google are both solutions in the Database as a Service (DBaaS) category. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.3, while Google is ranked #4 with an average rating of 7.8. Amazon Web Services (AWS) holds a 25.0% mindshare in DS, compared to Google’s 16.5% mindshare. Additionally, 98% of Amazon Web Services (AWS) users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Google users who would recommend it.

Amazon RDS

Read 54 Amazon RDS reviews

5,264 Views
4,374 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

Google Cloud SQL

Read 22 Google Cloud SQL reviews

3,161 Views
2,874 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Amazon RDS

Google Cloud SQL

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 12, 2025

Amazon RDS and Google Cloud SQL compete in the cloud-based relational database service market. Amazon RDS seems to have the upper hand due to its extensive features, supporting multiple database engines and offering deployment flexibility.

Features: Amazon RDS offers deployment agility, support for multiple database engines, fully managed services, and high availability with multi-AZ deployments. It also includes automated backups and easy scalability. Google Cloud SQL focuses on ease of management, high availability options, and seamless database migrations. It is especially suitable for handling diverse data with extensive storage and redundancy.

Room for Improvement: Amazon RDS users are concerned about complex migrations, lack of shell access, and limited database support. Integration with Microsoft products and cost-effective management are desired. Google Cloud SQL could improve by enhancing security related to public IP addresses and expanding database integration capabilities, such as better analytics and AI capabilities.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Both Amazon RDS and Google Cloud SQL offer cloud and on-premises hybrid solutions. Amazon RDS has comprehensive documentation, but some users find technical support reliant on service tier commitments. Google Cloud SQL is known for prompt customer service, though initial configuration can be complex.

Pricing and ROI: Amazon RDS is cost-effective when optimized but requires careful cloud provisioning to avoid unexpected expenses. Its pay-as-you-go model helps in reducing DBA overheads. Google Cloud SQL's pricing is competitive, slightly more expensive than AWS but attractive due to simplicity and lower management costs. Both solutions offer potential ROI, with users noting cost savings from reduced infrastructure investments.

To learn more, read our detailed Amazon RDS vs. Google Cloud SQL Report (Updated: March 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Amazon RDS vs. Google Cloud SQL

March 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Amazon RDS

Ranking in Database as a Service (DBaaS)

2nd

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Google Cloud SQL

Ranking in Database as a Service (DBaaS)

4th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Database as a Service (DBaaS) category, the mindshare of Amazon RDS is 25.0%, down from 27.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Google Cloud SQL is 16.5%, down from 18.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Database as a Service (DBaaS)

Featured Reviews

Samuel Ebite

AICE Graduate at alx_africa

Ensure high availability with robust encryption and seamless backups

Amazon RDS provides data encryption using services like KMS, crucial for securing high-sensitive data and meeting compliance requirements such as HIPAA or PCI DSS. The best practices we've employed with RDS help design a well-architected framework, encompassing security, encryption, scalability with multi-availability zone deployment, and operational excellence with automated backups. RDS features, such as reserved instances, storage auto-scaling, monitoring with technologies like CloudWatch, and proxies, contribute to cost optimization. The solution enhances security with IAM authentication and offers high availability to end users.

Read full review

Prathap Sankar

Analytics Delivery Manager at Tredence Inc.

Gain control and flexibility with customizable tools but has slower performance

I am majorly working in Google Cloud SQL for building my applications Google Cloud SQL provides complete customization options, along with a dashboarding tool and a comprehensive suite of tools that can be used to customize and build any application needed. The deployment model allows for…

Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"It handles large-scale data migrations perfectly. Amazon RDS's performance is quite good. Charges are incurred after you utilize the service"

"Amazon RDS fulfills PCI requirements, which is a valuable feature for us."

"Amazon RDS is very easy to use."

"It is easy to use, flexible, and powerful."

"Amazon RDS gives us the ability to select as many tools, replicas, regions, and zones as we want."

"The Amazon RDS features I found most valuable are snapshots and automatic backups."

"I use Amazon RDS to store and manage data securely. It helps me retrieve information and gain insights from the data that comes in for my business or specific applications."

"The product's installation phase is easy."

More Amazon RDS pros

"This is a stable solution and offers good performance."

"From a database management perspective, it provides services without the need for me to worry about backups, scaling, or other operational issues."

"My suggestion to anyone thinking about this solution is to jump into it head-first!"

"It supports different databases, like Postgres and MySQL."

"The initial setup is straightforward."

"What I like the most about Google Cloud SQL is that it handles the management, which allows us to concentrate on our applications."

"The most valuable features are that it's easy to use, simple, and user-friendly."

"Google Cloud SQL provides complete customization options, along with a dashboarding tool and a comprehensive suite of tools that can be used to customize and build any application needed."

More Google Cloud SQL pros

Cons

"For improvements, Amazon RDS could work on more features for multi-availability zone deployment to enhance higher availability, and on simplifying migration for those transitioning from on-premises to cloud environments."

"The only thing that needs improvement would be the pricing of the solution."

"The solution is a bit expensive."

"When you are using it for the first time, it is a little bit hard to configure. The first-time configuration is not very easy. It should be easier to configure. Its installation should also be simpler. Currently, its installation is very complex. With SQL Server, we have access to the SQL Server analysis services and reporting services, but such services are not available with Amazon RDS."

"Sometimes the interface has many moving parts, which is a concern."

"In the next release, it would be great to have access to core parameters to improve or tweak the performance."

"In the next release, it would be great to see RDS provide connection pooling out of the box."

More Amazon RDS cons

"Google Cloud SQL needs to improve its support for high-end I/O operations. On-prem systems with high I/O capabilities perform better, as Google Cloud SQL takes more time to handle the same tasks."

"The customer support should be improved."

"When discussing media files, such as images and audio files, stored in Google Cloud, concerns about handling large amounts of data arise."

"Google Cloud SQL still needs better connectivity to outside, existing data sources."

"I am yet to explore a lot of features that are present in this solution. However, it would be good if more documentation is available for this solution. This would help us in preparing for the certification exam and understand it better. Currently, we don't have much documentation. We do the labs for 20 or 25 minutes, but we can't capture and download anything."

"The most vulnerable problem with Google SQL is that while you can customize your access control list, it provides you with a public IP address."

"The only thing that could be better is the pricing."

"They could improve documentation and dashboard stability for efficient user experience and database management."

More Google Cloud SQL cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"By using a combination of Reserve Instances and On-Demand pricing, you can reduce the cost."

"Licensing fees are paid on an annual basis."

"Amazon RDS could improve by reducing the price."

"The solution is expensive."

"Amazon RDS is cheaper compared to other tools."

"We are paying for a service license."

"I would rate the tool's pricing an eight out of ten."

"The pricing of RDS is a little bit high compared to Microsoft... However, it is a good price compared to other solutions."

More Amazon RDS pricing and cost advice

"The solution is affordable."

"From a financial perspective, Google Cloud SQL is on the cheaper side."

"While the platform’s pricing may be higher, it aligns with industry standards, considering the quality of service and features provided."

"You need to pay extra costs for backup and replication."

"It's really cheap. It wouldn't be more than, I believe it's around 50 euro per month for running a cloud SQL."

"The pricing is very much an important factor as to why we use this solution."

"It is not expensive, especially considering the significant reduction in database management time."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

14%

Computer Software Company

14%

University

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

16%

Computer Software Company

13%

University

Retailer

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Amazon RDS?

The product's installation phase is easy.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Amazon RDS?

The pricing for Amazon RDS is reasonable.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Amazon RDS?

One key improvement would be adding support for multi-storage paradigms, including columnar support, as seen in TiDB. The serverless support with Aurora could also be enhanced. Additionally, having...

See all answers

What do you like most about Google Cloud SQL?

The implementation part of the product was easy.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Google Cloud SQL?

The cost is expensive, especially for services like BigQuery, which charge based on query operations. We pay as we use, with no fixed cost.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Google Cloud SQL?

Google Cloud SQL needs to improve its support for high-end I/O operations. On-prem systems with high I/O capabilities perform better, as Google Cloud SQL takes more time to handle the same tasks. T...

See all answers

Comparisons

MongoDB Atlas vs Amazon RDS

Compared 28% of the time

Oracle Database as a Service vs Amazon RDS

Compared 17% of the time

Microsoft Azure SQL Database vs Amazon RDS

Compared 17% of the time

Google Cloud Spanner vs Amazon RDS

Compared 5% of the time

Oracle Exadata Cloud at Customer vs Amazon RDS

Compared 5% of the time

More Amazon RDS Competitors

Microsoft Azure SQL Database vs Google Cloud SQL

Compared 41% of the time

MongoDB Atlas vs Google Cloud SQL

Compared 13% of the time

Oracle Database as a Service vs Google Cloud SQL

Compared 6% of the time

Google Cloud Spanner vs Google Cloud SQL

Compared 3% of the time

Oracle Exadata Cloud at Customer vs Google Cloud SQL

Compared 2% of the time

More Google Cloud SQL Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Amazon RDS

March 2025

Download Amazon RDS product report

Buyer's Guide

Google Cloud SQL

March 2025

Download Google Cloud SQL product report

Also Known As

RDS

No data available

Overview

Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) is a web service that makes it easier to set up, operate, and scale a relational database in the cloud. It provides cost-efficient, resizeable capacity for an industry-standard relational database and manages common database administration tasks.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Google Cloud SQL is a fully-managed database service that makes it easy to set up, maintain, manage, and administer your relational PostgreSQL and MySQL databases in the cloud. Google Cloud SQL offers high performance, scalability, and convenience. Hosted on Google Cloud Platform, Cloud SQL provides a database infrastructure for applications running anywhere.

Google

Sample Customers

Edmodo

BeDataDriven, CodeFutures, Daffodil, GenieConnect, KiSSFLOW, LiveHive, SulAm_rica, Zync

Buyer's Guide

Amazon RDS vs. Google Cloud SQL

March 2025

Free Report: Amazon RDS vs. Google Cloud SQL

Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon RDS vs. Google Cloud SQL and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.

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